Racism

Racism refers to a variety of practices, beliefs, social relations, and phenomena that work to reproduce a racial hierarchy and social structure that yield superiority, power, and privilege for some, and discrimination and oppression for others. It can take several forms, including representational, ideological, discursive, interactional, institutional, structural, and systemic

BRIEF SUMMARY

Racism refers to a variety of practices, beliefs, social relations, and phenomena that work to reproduce a racial hierarchy and social structure that yield superiority, power, and privilege for some, and discrimination and oppression for others. It can take several forms, including representational, ideological, discursive, interactional, institutional, structural, and systemic.

KEY POINTS

  • Racism, as defined based on social science research and theory, is about much more than race-based prejudice—it exists when an imbalance in power and social status is generated by how we understand and act upon race.

RESOURCES

SHARED WISDOM

  • (Added 11/29/23, Counselor Talk):
    • Q: This year we have noticed a lot of insensitive and racial comments being made by our 5th and 6th graders. Our school would love to find a speaker that could talk to the student body about anti-racism. Does anyone know of someone who talks to schools/leads convocations about anti-racism?
    • A: ACT out caters to these very things and is highly engaging. https://www.claudemcnealproductions.com/act-out-ensemble/
  • ISCA’s Call to Action
  • ASCA’s Antiracism Statement
  • Q: My athletic director asked for a recommendation for a book, online course, etc for a student athlete (11th grader) who was videoed saying some awful things, including a bunch of racial slurs. Any suggestions?
    • Call Purdue’s black cultural center. They have a library and super suggestions!
    • Pulling from the SEL bibliotherapy, found on the IDOE website under Cultural Competency, here are two that I think would be appropriate for the student: This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewel, it gives 20 activities for the reader to examine social identity, race, ethnicity, and racism; March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (first in a collection of three), John Lewis’ life told through a graphic novel. I taught this graphic novel as part of a larger unit when I taught freshman. They loved it, and it sparked a lot of great discussion.